Concern for customers carrying boxes particularly those used for the marketing of beer to prevent injury to the hands of the customer is a major consideration of the beer company. Boxes wherein the hand hole is provided in the partition and wherein it is necessary to reach into the box through a hole in the top wall and to carry the box with the fingers extending through the hand hole in the partition poses problems that are primarily due to the lack of space between the bottle necks and caps and the central partition.
Attempts have been made to solve this problem for example as disclosed in Canadian Pat. No. 950866 issued July 9, 1974 to Akkerman a hand hole access panel is folded on a hinge line positioned between a pair of adjacent bottles into the box and then the panel itself folded along two fold lines substantially perpendicular to the first fold line by engagement with the body of the containers (beer bottles) within the box to form a substantially U-shaped protective figuration. The U-shaped arrangement limits in width the opening and created difficulties for customers with rather large hands.
Another arrangement to protect the hands is described in Canadian Pat. No. 967524 issued May 13, 1975 to Stone. Protection is provided by dividing the access panel into three discreet flaps which independently move into the container when the hand is inserted to grasp the handhold in the partition and an insert is provided extending from the partition towards the bottles to further protect the hand.